20" LCD Monitors Roundup. Part IV. Page 9

With this article I’m willing to introduce to you a few new models of 20" LCD monitors from different brands. You’ll find here monitors for work and for the home, affordable and not quite, with new widescreen matrixes as well as with the classic aspect ratio of 4:3. We will talk about 13 solutions from Asus, BenQ, Dell, HP, LG, NEC, Philips, Samsung and Viewsonic.

The monitor’s brightness is set at 50% by default. When connected via its digital interface, the monitor doesn’t offer a contrast setting. You have to use your graphics card settings if the brightness adjustment range is insufficient for you. I selected 13% brightness to achieve a 100nit white. The brightness is regulated by means of pulse-width modulation of the power of the backlight lamps at a frequency of 180Hz.

Color gradients are reproduced without banding.

The gamma curves look very good. They go close to each other and to the ideal curve for gamma 2.2. The monitor has no problems reproducing dark or light halftones.

The color temperature setup is good. There’s little difference between the temperatures of different grays – less than 200-300K. Most users won’t even notice this.

The monitor’s response time average is 10.0 milliseconds. The longest transition takes 21.8 milliseconds. Despite the use of a VA matrix there is no growth of the response time on darkest halftones, which is characteristic of many VA-based monitors.

The response time mechanism is not without errors: 2.4% on average with a maximum of 24.4%. The average value is low in comparison with other monitors, and most transitions are performed without any error at all. So, RTC-provoked artifacts won’t be conspicuous on this monitor. You’ll have to specifically look for them in order to see them.

The contrast ratio is good at about 400:1. This is higher than most monitors with TN and S-IPS matrixes provide.

The Dell 2007FP is a good monitor overall. Its classic aspect ratio makes it appealing to people who work in CAD programs or with multi-monitor configurations. The 2007FP comes with an S-PVA matrix (and is also available with an S-IPS matrix) that ensures very good viewing angles. It is ergonomic and has an accurate setup. This monitor is not limited to work only as its matrix speed is high enough for games, let alone movies. But if you are looking for a monitor that is best for watching movies, you may want to consider the next model instead.